Federalist No. 44

Federalist No. 44, authored by James Madison under the pen name Publius, is the forty fourth of 85 essays. Titled "Restrictions on the Authority of the Several States", Madison writes about a diminution in the power of the states under the proposed constitution. Many Anti-Federalists were outraged at this.

In this paper, Madison discusses some of the Enumerated Powers, the Supremacy Clause, as well as the outlawing of ex post facto laws, bills of attainder, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts. He also spends some time defending the Necessary and proper clause, which he viewed as necessary to keep the States united under one banner. Without the necessary and proper clause, Madison believed the Constitution to be a "dead letter".